For days, two Nakuru families clung to hope, dialing unanswered phones and combing hospitals in the frantic search for their missing kin.
But that hope gave way to heartbreak when the bodies of James Karanja, 32, and Naomi Wangari, 30, were discovered lying cold at the Nairobi Funeral Home (formerly Nairobi City Mortuary).
The two had gone out together on the night of August 23 in Mlolongo, Machakos County, and never returned home.
What followed was a harrowing ordeal of unanswered questions, desperate journeys between towns and finally, the devastating truth.
James Karanja, who went missing after going out with his girlfriend to an entertainment joint within Mlolongo in Machakos County. His lifeless body was found at Nairobi Funeral Home a week later.
Photo credit: Courtesy
According to Karanja’s mother, Margaret Nyutu, she last spoke to her son on August 22. When she called later, his phone went unanswered. At first, she assumed he had been held up at work.
She tried again the following day, but this time the phone had been switched off. Still, she hoped it was a simple issue like a dead battery.
For two more days, she tried, convinced maybe he had lost his phone. Her fears were confirmed when a colleague called to inform her that Karanja had not reported to work since Saturday.
“Normally, if he missed my calls, he would always return them. When his colleague told me he was missing, I was shocked. I asked what they had done about it, and they said they were also searching for him. They later advised us to report to the police,” she said.
The news prompted Karanja’s father to travel to Mlolongo to join in the search, where he was accompanied by Wangari’s father. But after several days of combing the area, their efforts yielded nothing.
The two men returned to Nakuru, leaving behind Karanja’s brother and Wangari’s brother to continue the search, visiting hospitals and mortuaries in the hope of finding answers.
Their desperate search ended at the Nairobi Funeral Home on September 5 when Wangari’s brother identified her body.
Mortuary attendants then advised Karanja’s brother to call their parents due to the sensitivity of his age.
Karanja's father travelled back to Nairobi the following day, where he also identified his son's body.
“They just went missing, and the only thing we later learned was that their bodies were lying at the mortuary. We had thought they would come back alive, but it never came to pass,” Ms Nyutu said tearfully.
She also dismissed rumours circulating on social media suggesting her daughter-in-law had a hand in her son’s death.
“People are saying his wife killed him. How could she kill a man who was helping her? Yes, he had a wife and Wangari had a husband. But blaming will not bring them back. Let us give him a decent send-off,” she said.
After completing secondary school, he stayed home for two years before enrolling in a hairdressing course.
Later, he ventured into small businesses before moving to Machakos, where he worked in a quarry, rising from driver to machine operator.
“He was the second-born in a family of six. Despite having his own family, he always supported me whenever I had a problem,” she said.
Meanwhile, Karanja's wife, Margaret Wangui, is struggling to come to terms with the tragedy. She revealed that Karanja, the father of her two children, had been working in Mlolongo and would occasionally visit their home in Juja Farm.
“I was called by my mother-in-law with the news. I am still in shock. He has left me with young children, and I am not feeling well,” she said.
Naomi Wangari, 30, a mother of two who went missing after going out with her boyfriend to an entertainment joint within Mlolongo in Machakos County. Her lifeless body was found at Nairobi Funeral Home a week later.
Photo credit: Courtesy
On his part, Wangari’s father, Elisha Mburu, said his daughter had moved to Mlolongo in search of greener pastures, where she first secured a hairdressing job before switching to the hospitality industry, where she had worked for the past two years.
He recalled that the last time Wangari was at their Mai Mahiu home was in August, when she came to pick her two children so they could spend the holiday together.
“I last spoke to her on August 22. She promised to bring the children back on August 24 for school reopening. But when her phone went unanswered, I travelled to Machakos only to find the minors alone and their mother missing,” Mr Mburu said.
Last Wednesday, he travelled to Nakuru with the children before returning to Mlolongo to continue searching for his daughter. Days later, his son broke the heartbreaking news after finding her body at the mortuary.
“It has been a hard time for us as a family,” he said.
Mr Mburu said he had known Karanja as his daughter’s friend, since he had visited them twice.
“The second time she came with him, I got concerned and asked who he was. She told me they were friends, but I could tell they were more than that. She had promised to explain their relationship later. He had respect, but it had not reached the point where she introduced him formally as her lover,” he recalled.
Mr Mburu described Wangari, his first-born and only daughter in a family of four, as loving and caring. According to Kikuyu tradition, she was named after his mother.
Wangari, who had separated from her first husband, often sent money for the upkeep of her children and picked them up during school holidays.
“She was a very helpful child. She was so happy when she landed the hotel job because it paid better and allowed her to support her children. We will not follow up on this matter further since we were told it was an accident,” he said.
According to the families, police informed them that the two died in a motorbike accident after colliding with a vehicle. Their bodies were badly mutilated.
Karanja and Wangari were buried separately last Friday. Though Karanja was married, the families acknowledged that the two had been lovers.
